How will you survive the outage? Two outages, in fact. Microsoft’s Zune Marketplace and Xbox Live together. For up to 24 hours. Maybe as long as 48 hours for all things Zune. Sounds like a lot of downtime, right? It sure does.

According to Xbox Live’s Major Nelson, it is server maintenance “in preparation for the new Xbox experience which will be available later this fall.” So the reason itself is nothing to trouble over. But the act of taking both elements down can really eat into your fun time. All depends on when you don your multiplayer cap. Or download and share songs. How, then, do you plan to deal with the stoppage?

This isn’t a one-off for Xbox Live users. In mid to late April, IGN’s Team Xbox reported that the service would be down for eight hours. But that doesn’t discount the disruptions. And though both interruptions to occur early next week have been announced several days in advance, the time away might be thoroughly noticeable to many users. So how does this news sit with you, console gamer?

The Zune Marketplace, meanwhile, is another interesting creature. It was recently matched with a software update for its matching family of devices, receiving considerable critical acclaim. (Audible support has come as well.) Thus, seeing as it is often placed opposite the iTunes Store, it seems peculiar that Microsoft would prepare its users for such an extensive time offline. Uptime is after all quite critical in the world of media distribution, even when it is a relatively minor player that is affected.

Having invested in an iPhone nearly one year ago, I must admit that I don’t own such a device, nor do I have the compulsion to splurge on one. But I did buy a Zune for a relative several months ago and had a good bit of time to learn the ropes, as it were. And it is clear that if one has a Zune Pass in hand, that is something a consumer would tend to want to make the most of given the opportunity. So I ask, does this irk you in any way? Is it at all tolerable? Or do you so casually interact with Zune Marketplace and various associated services and/or Xbox Live that it doesn’t bother you very much?

What’s your impression of these outages? ( surveys)

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In October, some Webkinz bloggers noticed […]Source:GigaOM
Like India, Vodafone ‘hearts’ Brazil: I guess they are happy with BRI (Brazil-Russia-India) and leave the C (China) alone for now.)
Verizon has launched its FiOS TV service in Oregon, making it the 13th state where the company is offering an alternative to cable TV.
[…]

newVideoPlayer(”The_Landlord_Ferrell.flv”, 475, 376);
AOL’s search engine Truveo put out a list of the top video searches for 2007. The list includes Will Ferrell’s Web classic “The Landlord,” an excerpt of which runs above. Here’s the list of videos, complete with links, so you don’t have to use Truveo anymore.

Top ten video search results from 2007

1. Miss Teen South Carolina Answers Questions

2. Leave Britney Alone!

3. Prison Inmates Perform “Thriller”

4. Paris in Jail: The Music Video

5. The Landlord, Featuring Will Ferrell

   The Landlord on FunnyOrDie.com
   

6. Safari Animals Battle at Kruger;

7. “Chocolate Rain” by Tay Zonday

8. “I Got a Crush on Obama” by Obama Girl;

9. Karl Rove’s Rap Debut as MC Rove

10. College Student Tasered at Kerry Forum (”Don’t tase me, bro!”)

Source:Valleywag

newVideoPlayer(”Venture_Capital_Idle_1.flv”, 475, 376);
Onset Ventures didn’t just send out a Christmas card this year. They also performed the card, a parody of American Idol. Avert your eyes. Onset partner Shomit Ghose penned the lyrics, but none of the singers actually work for the Sand Hill Road firm. (For the record, the performers are Tom Shields of Yieldex, David Binetti of Sentilla, Randy Haykin of Outlook Ventures and IT consultant Tim Salaver — yeah, we haven’t heard of them either.) Embedded, above, a parody carol called “It Came Upon a Midnight Beer.” Which describes the song, too.

Source:Valleywag

The Web is deriding Microsoft’s decision to rename PlaysForSure, its digital rights platform, as “Certified for Vista.” It’s actually a rare sign of intelligent life in Redmond’s marketing cubes. PlaysForSure never spawned the hoped-for army of iTunes killers, and Microsoft itself created another format for its own Zune, kneecapping any stores foolish enough to adopt PlaysForSure.

In short, there’s no loss of brand equity here for Microsoft. The new label suggests that devices and music stores are merely compatible with Windows — the real butter on Microsoft’s bread. And even though the stores and players will likely work just as well with Windows XP, Microsoft has just tricked its music partners into giving free advertising to its newer, unloved operating system.

At […]Source:GigaOM
Alterna-hipster band The Shins want you to buy a Zune. No. Whoops, wait. The Shins want you to buy an iPhone. Hold on, they want you to buy both? Talk about hedging your bets. The band is featured in current commercials for both portable media players. They haven’t been this ubiquitous since that stupid Garden […]

newVideoPlayer(”MC_Hammer.flv”, 475,376);
Silicon Valley entrepreneur Stanley Kirk Burrell, who sometimes goes by another name and often wears very large pants, as the video above, has teamed with Flock founders Geoffrey Arone and Anthony Young to launch DanceJam, a new online video site. Burrell is perhaps best known for pairing with videoblogger Justine Ezarik of iJustine to endorse Y Combinator’s MySpace profile tool.

Burrell told the Financial Times he spoke with angel investor Ron Conway prior to teaming with Arone and Young on DanceJam. In an interesting side note, business partners might be surprised to learn that prior to his tech career, Burrell also dabbled in music. He’s perhaps best know for his 2006 album titled Look Look Look. And here’s a picture of Burrell with fellow entrepreneur Jay Adelson, the CEO of Digg.

Source:Valleywag

Look where baiting Apple fanboys gets you. Yesterday we noted that the top-selling digital music device on Amazon.com was not the iPod but Microsoft’s Zune. Commenter deathbychichi made quick work of this assertion.

“Um, yeah, currently two Zunes in the top 25 electronics bestsellers on Amazon. Nine iPods.” Deathbychici also points out that while Microsoft’s heavily discounted $89 30GB model is currently outselling each of the various nine iPod models, different colors of the iPod Nano are outselling the regularly-priced Zune. Ouch.

(Photo by S Baker)

J Allard, VP of Microsoft’s entertainment and devices devision and one of the gurus behind the Xbox and the Zune, has some crazy plans that he hopes will put Microsoft on top of entertainment — and it has nothing to do with discontinuing the brown Zune. In his ramblings to Saul Hansell of the New York Times Bits blog, he revealed he’s looking to create an entertainment-distribution service that will do all the heavy lifting for content providers. Microsoft’s online gaming service and the Zune’s Internet interface are built on the same platform. The implication?

When it ties that same back-end service into cell phones — maybe those running Windows Mobile? — it would be capable of serving media to basically any device. With this distribution network, content providers would simply hand over Microsoft the source material, the way they send film reels to theaters, and Allard’s division would be responsible for distributing it. The one problem with this idea? Hollywood trusts Microsoft about as far as it can throw it.

Microsoft wants to buy Musiwave, a company specializing in mobile music services. The deal, among other things, would lay the foundation for a Zune wireless store, matching Apple’s iTunes Store for Wi-Fi that lets iPhone and iPod Touch users download songs over the air. This copycat move is just one more sign of what’s wrong with Microsoft’s Zune strategy. It can’t settle on one — so it just winds up latching onto whatever is the hot topic of the day. Here’s what Microsoft should be doing instead of copying Apple.

Microsoft’s Facebook-inspired Zune Social interface wasn’t a bad idea — it was just poorly implemented. (Honestly, limiting users to three plays from a wirelessly shared song? That may be enough to know if you hate something, but not if you actually want to buy an album.) Microsoft should beef up the Zune with some serious music-recommending algorithms. It could create some form of lending library so those without subscriptions can borrow tracks or albums from friends for an extended period of time. That could gain it some converts. Copying Apple? All that gets Microsoft is users who want the iPod, but lamer, later, and costlier.

First $150, then $129. Now, Woot, the deal-a-day online retail site, is selling the first-gen Zune for $99 to any suckers who overpaid the first two times. No refund this time either. [Woot]

It’s been a banner day for Apple, Google, and Research In Motion, as shares of all three companies hit all-time highs.

• Apple closed at $161.45 with a market cap of $140.4 billion. That’s just short of Nokia’s $143.77 billion .
• Google shares ended the day at $594.05.
• Research In Motion rocketed up almost 13 percent to $113.37 after solidly beating expectations.

Apple and RIM already build smartphones; Google is widely rumored to be entering the market. Is there, so to speak, a wireless connection here? Tell us your thoughts in the comments.

Source:Valleywag

Anyone recall Rick Rubin’s rant about digital music and how we need to sign up for a subscription service powered by cable providers — similar to the mumbo jumbo Bill Gate’s proposes for the Zune? Well, surprisingly, Time Warner Cable has taken Rubin’s bait and jumped straight into the fray with Road Runner Music. For $9.95 a month, you get unlimited access to streaming music. It also will sell digital downloads through its store, and allow you to transfer files onto portables for an additional fee. With all these new entries into digital music distribution — real and rumored — it’ll be interesting to see if Apple caves to market pressure and either allows flexible pricing on iTunes, as the labels have asked for, or a subscription plan, to stay competitive.

Source:Valleywag

Allfacebook.com is reporting a rumor that Facebook will take on Apple’s dominant iTunes by introducing its own music store. Few details are provided, save that they are actively looking to hire someone to head the project and discussions with studios have been ongoing. Music applications such as iLike are popular on the social network, and digital music is a natural fit with the site’s original college-kid demographic. But could Facebook really pull this off? At this point, we don’t really know what a Facebook music store would be. We do know, however, what it’s not.

Amazon.com has set the example of a Web-based store, unencumbered by annoying digital-rights-management software. By eschewing DRM, Amazon’s downloads play well with any music gadget, including iPods. Would Facebook follow this model — or, like its photos, keep users’ content locked into its website interface, playing music, say, on Facebook user profiles? The latter, however, would likely spark a user rebellion, if only because it might remind them too much of raucous MySpace profiles, which start blaring music the moment you load the page.

An obvious fear: Facebook’s music store might draw users away from popular third-party Facebook applications like iLike and iMeem. But Facebook could instead design its store to work seamlessly with them, giving them access to an on-site store to close a sale instead of sending users off to iTunes or other stores, as they now must do.

One last option: Facebook might agree with Microsoft, the advertising partner with which it’s negotiating the potential sale of a stake in the company, that subscriptions are the future of music.

Whatever Facebook decides on, one thing is sure: The site ensures a captive user base. If the Valley is swooning over Facebook’s advertising potential, imagine the reaction when they add an e-commerce revenue stream.

What we do know is Facebook will not offer unrestricted file sharing. How do we know that? They’ve tried that before. Capitalizing on music sharing’s popularity amongst its former core audience of college students, Facebook experimented with a peer-to-peer application called Wirehog in 2004. That legally questionable application has quietly faded into obscurity since Mark Zuckerberg opted for Wall Street and Valley acceptance and wealth over popularity with the college kids. Wise move. By following that path, he’s ended up as even more of a rock star.